After Dark
by OzGeek
Summary: A story written for the NFA skills workshop. The challenge: to focus on the thoughts of one character reliving a moment from the series. The catch  a character you don't normally write. I chose Jimmy. Oneshot.


Story written for the NFA skills workshop:

To write a short fic featuring a character of your choice reflecting over a past event. The past event must be canon, so either it occured on the show (e.g. Gibb's coma/Kates death) or mentioned on the show (e.g. Abby thinking about coffin sex with McGee/Ziva thinking about her sister's death/Gibbs about the first time he used honey dust!)

You may use any character of your choosing but the fic must be centered around this **one** character. Others may be mentioned but as part of the main charcaters thoughts.

The aim of this challenge is to develop our characterisation skills, really get into the characters head. So pick a character that you either never write/hardly ever write/hate writing/or just have trouble writing.

The fic can be any genre but MUST be canon. The more realistic and in-character you fic is, the better it will be!

Fic Length: 500-700 words.  
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**After Dark**

Jimmy rocketed awake: sweaty, shaky and with an aching head. Recognising the symptoms, he sighed, sat up and fumbled around the top of his bedside table for the bowl of crunchy cellophane wrapped glucose candies. He leant back on the bed head sucking the sweet morsel and his fingers marched around the table again, this time in search of his glasses. He knew it was pointless to wear them in near total darkness but it somehow made him feel more in control. Given how strange he was feeling at the moment, any semblance of control was welcome.

He had no idea why his night hypos were associated with nightmares, but the pattern was too consistent to ignore. Tonight's dream was the old standard - reliving the embarrassingly awkward incident with Abby in autopsy.

He had been so nervous that day. He really didn't know why. Well, he could take an educated guess: Abby was a supremely confident woman, a woman with power, a woman with Gibbs in her back pocket. If he could get her onside then maybe, just maybe, Gibbs might have a little more faith in him.

Yet when that fateful moment came and Abby had taken him under her wing and attempted to share her world with him, he had choked: big time.

In theory, extracting fingerprints was a simple procedure. Abby freely admitted she had never used this method before but she cheerfully decreed they would 'figure it out together'. The comradeship was touching: he was finally part of the greater team.

Unfortunately, he hadn't really been listening to her; the rhythm of the heartbeat in his ears had made that a difficult task. Instead he had chosen to offer, 'call me Jimmy', in an act he hoped would be viewed as both magnanimous and overtly friendly.

"I just did."

Or appear like a rude, insensitive cretin who wasn't listening to a single word she said.

Yes, he had choked. In just a few short minutes he had comprehensively managed to prove himself a complete and utter moron from stammering over every word, to knocking all the equipment to the ground to the piece de résistance: super-gluing himself to her body.

He could still feel his heart drop as she dismissed him, "You know, I think that this would be better if I just did this by myself." His team standing now relegated to bench-warmer, or towel boy.

Then the horror as he realised he could not release her. He was alone in an autopsy room, groping a professional woman and he could not stop. It would all be fine as long as no one else ever found out…

"Palmer, what the hell are you doing?!"

The look on McGee's face as the autopsy doors slid open reared up at him in the dark even now and he cringed involuntarily, completely forgetting he was safe in his own bedroom. That face spoke volumes – it was a mighty spring from which a wealth of nightmares sprang.

The actual sheer terror phase lasted less than an afternoon – until McGee came down and apologised. He was pretty sure Abby had forced him to do that but it was a nice gesture. Lord knows how bad the nightmares might have been if he hadn't.

The nightmares started that night and clearly, still persisted. Not only did he have the 'relieve the reality' nightmares but he also had to suffer the 'variations on a theme' nightmares. Like the one where he and Abby are super-glued together and Michelle walks in – and then walks out of his life. Or the one where he and Michelle are stuck together, trying to hide from everyone and McGee and Abby walk in. Then there was the one time he had the dream where he and McGee were stuck together. He shuddered.

Feeling more normal, he flicked on the night light and did a quick glucose check: good enough. He grabbed a dry cracker from the container next to his bed. Turning off the light, he settled back into his warm bed to munch. Then he could concentrate on building more enticing dreams – one involving a certain young lady, for example.


End file.
